Lance Armstrong, according to insiders, continued to lie in his Oprah Winfrey interview on Thursday and Friday.
He denied that he attempted to donate $250 000 to the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), despite its chiefs reporting otherwise.
“No,” Armstrong told Winfrey, “that is not true.”
The question came on night two of the two-part interview, Armstrong’s first since Usada proved him a drug cheat and stripped him of his seven Tour de France wins.
Armstrong admitted to doping and said that he has to apologise to many people. He refused to name names and provide details, and Winfrey failed to press him.
“I don’t want to accuse anybody else,” Armstrong said. “I don’t want to talk about anybody else.
“I made my decisions. They are my mistakes, and I am sitting here today to acknowledge that and to say I’m sorry for that. The culture was what it was.”
Winfrey did quiz him about a reported attempt to donate $250 000 to Usada in 2004. Agency CEO Travis Tygart revealed it in a 60 Minutes TV interview on January 9.
“It was a significant financial donation. One of his representatives made an offer to us,” Tygart said. “I was stunned. It was clear conflict of interest for Usada. We had no hesitation in rejecting that offer.”
“That’s not true?” asked Winfrey.
“That is not true,” Armstrong replied. “In the 1 000-page Reasoned Decision that they had issued, there was a lot of stuff in there, everything was in there, why wasn’t that in there? Pretty big story. Oprah, it’s not true.” – cyclingweekly
